1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to authenticating indicia, and, more particularly, to authenticating indicia utilizing identification information embedded in the indicia.
2. Brief Description of Related Developments
There are numerous postal carriers, for example, a governmental service such as the U.S. Postal Service or the Royal Mail of Great Britain, or commercial enterprises such as United Parcel Service, Federal Express, etc. Such a postal carrier service will be referred to herein as “the post.” A high volume postal customer may use a metered system where a meter, also referred to as a Postal Security Device (PSD), is used to secure the proof of payment of postal indicia applied to mailing items that identifies the value of the postage applied. The customer may purchase postage and the purchased value may be stored in the PSD. As the postage indicia is applied to items, the value applied may be deducted from the stored value. Once postage indicia is applied, the item may then be dropped into the collection stream of the particular post and subsequently processed by the post for delivery.
As one example of postal indicia, the U.S. Postal Service Information Based Indicia Program (IBIP) specification requires postal indicia to include detailed cryptographically signed postage transaction information, printed using a two-dimensional barcode. During processing, the U.S. Postal service utilizes detection devices to verify the authenticity and value of the indicia.
It would advantageous to provide secure postage evidencing information that is verifiable automatically by postal processing equipment to guard against fraud. It would also be advantageous to provide the particular post with the ability to authenticate indicia without the need to maintain a database of customer information necessary to relate indicia to a specific customer. It would be additionally advantageous to provide secure indicia and the ability to authenticate the secure indicia for any suitable application, not limited to postal applications.